Ephesus and Selçuk

A small stone chapel in the woods on Bülbül Dağı, the mountain above the ancient city, venerated as the place where Mary spent her last years after John brought her to Ephesus. It was identified in 1891 by Lazarist missionaries following the visions of a German nun, and popes have visited since 1967. Christians and Muslims, who also revere Mary, come to pray, leave notes on the wishing wall and take water from the spring. A mass is held every year on 15 August.

TipIt charges its own entrance fee and is not covered by museum passes. Combine it with a taxi to the upper gate of Ephesus, about seven kilometres back down the road.

Entering at the upper (south) gate lets you walk the city downhill. The first area is the civic centre: the State Agora, the small Odeon where the city council met, the Prytaneion with its sacred flame, and the Memmius monument. It's quieter than the lower city, and a good place to get your bearings.

The marble street that slopes down through the heart of the city, lined with statue bases, shop fronts and monuments. Look for the Fountain of Trajan, the elegant arch of the Temple of Hadrian, the Scholastica Baths and the public latrines, a row of marble seats where Ephesians sat side by side and talked business.

On the slope beside Curetes Street, under a large protective roof, stand the homes of wealthy Ephesians, built in the first century AD around open courtyards and lived in for several centuries. Glass walkways take you over and through rooms with mosaic floors, frescoes of mythological scenes, marble-clad walls and underfloor heating, while restorers piece together marble panels in front of you. For many visitors it's the highlight of Ephesus.

TipIt needs a separate ticket, bought at the entrance by the houses, on top of the main site ticket. The houses open later and close earlier than the rest of the site.

The two-storey façade at the foot of Curetes Street is the symbol of Ephesus. It was built in the early second century AD as a library and a tomb for Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, a governor of Asia, by his son, and once held thousands of scrolls. Austrian archaeologists re-erected the façade in the 1970s, with statues representing Wisdom, Knowledge, Intelligence and Virtue in its niches (the originals are in Vienna). The Mazaeus and Mithridates Gate beside it leads into the Commercial Agora.

TipThe square in front fills up from mid-morning; be here early, or in the last hour before closing.

Cut into the slope of Mount Panayır, the theatre seated around 24,000 people and is one of the largest of the ancient world. The Book of Acts tells of a riot here, when the silversmiths who made souvenirs of Artemis turned on Paul for preaching against her. From the top rows, the Arcadian Way, once lit and colonnaded, runs straight towards the lost harbour. Across the street, the Ephesus Experience Museum uses film and projections to bring the ancient city to life.

Of the great temple to Artemis, larger than the Parthenon and counted among the Seven Wonders of the World, only a single reassembled column and scattered marble blocks remain, often standing in a marshy pond with storks nesting on top. The sight is modest, but the setting, with the Basilica of St John and the İsa Bey Mosque on the hill behind, sums up the layers of history here.

The museum in the centre of Selçuk holds many of the finest finds from the site: two famous statues of the many-breasted Artemis of Ephesus, a reclining warrior from the Pollio fountain, portraits of emperors, and the household objects, frescoes and furniture of the Terrace Houses. An hour here gives the ruins far more meaning, ideally the afternoon after your visit.

Built in 1375 for İsa Bey of the Aydınoğulları dynasty, this is one of the oldest Turkish mosques in Anatolia, and an early step towards the Ottoman style. Its marble façade, courtyard and columns reuse stone from ancient Ephesus. It's a working mosque, so visit outside prayer times and dress modestly; women should bring a scarf.

On Ayasuluk Hill, above the town, the emperor Justinian built a vast domed basilica in the sixth century over the grave believed to be that of John the Apostle. Partly rebuilt columns and arches now trace its plan, with the tomb at the centre and a baptistery beside it. The same ticket covers the walls and towers of the fortress at the top of the hill, mostly Byzantine and Turkish, with views over Selçuk and the plain to the sea.

A hillside village eight kilometres east of Selçuk, with whitewashed stone houses, two old churches and terraced olive groves and vineyards. It was a Greek village until the population exchange of 1923, when Turkish families from Greece settled here, and it is known for its fruit wines, olive oil and village breakfasts. Day-trippers fill its lanes at midday and on weekends; it's much calmer in the evening if you stay over.

The nearest beach to Selçuk is a long, open stretch of sand about ten kilometres west, at the mouth of the Little Meander river. It is wilder and less built up than the beaches around Kuşadası, with a few large resorts at one end, and makes a good place to cool off after a morning in the ruins. Swim with care when the wind is up.

A resort town 20 kilometres south of Selçuk and one of Turkey's busiest cruise ports, with a sixteenth-century Ottoman caravanserai near the harbour, a lively old quarter and Güvercinada (Pigeon Island), a small fortified islet linked to the shore by a causeway. It has the most hotels and nightlife in the area, and ferries cross to the Greek island of Samos in season.

A small Hellenistic city on a terrace below a towering cliff, laid out on a neat grid, with the columns of the Temple of Athena, a well-preserved little theatre and a council house with its stone benches intact. It is the most atmospheric of the three Ionian sites, set among pines and usually quiet.

Once one of the great cities of Greece and the birthplace of philosophers such as Thales, Miletus now sits stranded inland on the flat Meander plain. Its huge theatre still dominates the site, and nearby are the Baths of Faustina, the harbour monument and the İlyas Bey Mosque of 1404. The same ticket includes the small Miletus Museum.

The Temple of Apollo at Didyma was one of the most important oracles of the ancient world, linked to Miletus by a sacred way. Though never finished, it is one of the best-preserved temples in Turkey, with towering columns, a sunken inner courtyard and a carved Medusa head beside the entrance. The site sits in a village just inland from the resort of Didim.

TipPriene, Miletus and Didyma make a full-day loop south from Selçuk or Kuşadası by car or tour, with lunch on the way.